Modesty Blaise and Axa artist Enric Badia Romero, still very much active, has announced a new book, Legends of Comic Women and Men of Paper, available to pre-order from him direct.
It’s the latest in a line of self-published Books from the artist, this title dedicated to compiling all his illustrations of various comic characters, including Axa, Modesty Blaise and Vampirella.
It will include more than 100 illustrations in colour and others in black and white featuring classic and modern comic book heroes, many previously unpublished.
A very limited edition, the book includes an introduction from the artist. Only 25 copies will include a pencil sketch of the author.
Like most cartoonists of his time, Spanish artist Romero was completely self-taught. “At 17, I saw my first work published in a Barcelona publication, thus beginning my career as an artist in the world of comics,” he says.
For eleven years between 1947-1958, he worked for publishers in his home city, alternating aventure stories with trading cards, figurines, covers, advertising work, and more. He also began running a correspondence class in drawing, which one thousand students signed up for. He set up a magazine, ALEX, managing to get some of the finest artists of the times to contribute.
In 1959, he started to work for publishers outside Spain, his work appearing in a variety of publications in the UK, US, France, Italy and Germany., eventually landing work on the newspaper strip Modesty Blaise in 1970, initially working on it until 1978, when overwork forced him to quit the series. (By then, he was also drawing Axa, the story of a future warrior, for The Sun).
When Axa ended in 1986 he returned to Modesty Blaise, working on Peter O’Donnell’s world famous strip until it ended in November 2000.
It was Peter who ended the series, bowing out due to personal reasons, Romero recalls on his web sire. “We naturally felt saddened by this decision: after almost 38 years,Modesty had become very dear to us. I am very grateful for the opportunity to have been able to make 49 of her stories come to life.
“Of course life goes on, and my love of the world of drawing has driven me to explore new characters, and I hope to be able to continue to please those who followed my previous work.”
• To Pre-Order Legends of Comic Women and Men of Paper – price €75 Euros plus €20 Euros shipping – email Enric at info@badiaromero.com | Web: www.badiaromero.com
With thanks to Colin Noble
The founder of downthetubes, which he established in 1998. John works as a comics and magazine editor, writer, and on promotional work for the Lakes International Comic Art Festival. He is currently editor of Star Trek Explorer, published by Titan – his third tour of duty on the title originally titled Star Trek Magazine.
Working in British comics publishing since the 1980s, his credits include editor of titles such as Doctor Who Magazine, Babylon 5 Magazine, and more. He also edited the comics anthology STRIP Magazine and edited several audio comics for ROK Comics. He has also edited several comic collections, including volumes of “Charley’s War” and “Dan Dare”.
He’s the writer of “Pilgrim: Secrets and Lies” for B7 Comics; “Crucible”, a creator-owned project with 2000AD artist Smuzz; and “Death Duty” and “Skow Dogs” with Dave Hailwood.
Categories: Art and Illustration, Books, British Comics - Newspaper Strips, downthetubes Comics News, downthetubes News